Well yes, outside of specific niches, mainly absurdly high resolution HMDs, the Index is your all-around highest quality choice. There's really no way around that.

That being said, if you're totally new to VR, you really don't need the best to enjoy it. I upgraded to an Index only after a year of VR because I knew by then that I enjoyed it enough to justify the expense, and having that leap forward was itself an exciting experience. Now at this point I think I would be really dissatisfied if I ever had to go back to a lower clarity HMD or traditional VR controllers. But if I hadn't had that year with my Vive, I wouldn't know how good I had it.

The only reason I would go with a budget option is if you're really uncertain if you will use or enjoy VR very much, and that's not in any way a terrible idea. Like I said, I didn't go for the big one until I knew I'd use it enough to be worth the price. I doubt I ever would have considered a one grand investment back when I was still on the fence.